Category Archives: Fossil Fuels

Turning Individual Action into Systemic Change

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During this course I had the opportunity to work with Citizens’ Climate Lobby on HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend act. CCL is a national, bipartisan, grassroots lobbying organization that supports volunteers through online trainings and connects them to groups in their area. We started social media campaigns on Facebook and Twitter and learned how to lobby.

HR 763 would put a price on carbon that would reduce US emissions by 40% in the first 12 years. Economists agree that this is the most effective and cost-efficient way to reduce emissions which is why it has drawn support from Republicans and Democrats. Additionally, the Act is revenue-neutral which means that the government doesn’t keep the tax collected. Instead, it gets sent back to low- and middle-income American taxpayers who will be most affected by the higher prices of a green economy.

Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. Effective, good for people, good for the economy, revenue neutral.

In working with CCL, I found that the politics of food and the politics of climate change are similar in many ways. People tend to be very opinionated on both sides, both issues are complex and affect everyone differently, and both require a combination of personal choices and systemic government change to be solved.

It is key that the Act is bipartisan because the only way that we can fight climate change is together. A resolution such as this is only the first of many legislation actions we will need to take, so it is important that everyone is behind it.

Systems theory shows us that everything is connected, and climate change is no different. A lifecycle analysis of any product shows the ecological impacts along the entire commodity chain. Ecological impacts are usually higher during the production/processing stages, so the externalities are often placed on low income communities. This is just one example of the Triple Inequality of climate change.

Scene of the Oncler's factory from the Lorax by Dr. Seuss.

Stories like the Lorax teach us that it’s okay to replace traditional citizenship duties with purposeful individual consumption, and it shifts the blame from producers to human nature (Maniates). When people are made aware of a dangerous product, they can make the individual choice not to buy it (Szasz). This protects them from the product but does nothing to address the problem for others. We need more than individual choices to combat climate change. HR 763 is one way of collective change, but people still have to make the individual choice to be politically active.

This is a picture from Environmental Lobby Day in Olympia, WA in 2019 that I went to with WashPIRG.

Lobbying for Climate and the Unknown about Industries

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In this class, I had the chance to examine the world food system from closer perspective. Indeed, the system thinking that we have been discussing all along the quarter perfectly applies to the industrial system.  Industries and companies are quintessentially looking for a maximum profit by using additives, pesticides, and fertilizer to increase the yield and minimize losses. Without looking at the consequences, for instance, food additives that are always used by industrials company are harmful for our body, causing obesity and other diseases, and also have an impact on the biosphere such as monocrops cultures, declining wild fish stocks, GMS crops, biofuels uses, etc.

However, the real wrongdoers in this situation are all people, especially politician, who know what is happening but do not lift a finger to change our mode of production, and therefore consumption. In fact, it is the role of our politician to establish regulation and make sure that companies who are not respecting norms and rules will be punished.

In these ideas some of my classmates and I decided to join a group of lobbyists who support the Energy Innovation Act. This Act should reduce America’s emissions by at least 40% in the first 12 years, and create 2.1 million new jobs, thanks to economic growth in local communities across America. Such results could be attained by taxing all companies who are producing greenhouse gas and giving benefice to U.S consumers. Therefore, consumers are not the one paying for a better carbon footprint. Nonetheless, this regulation has exemptions for fuels used for agriculture, the U.S army, and others. Otherwise, it could have the impact of a bomb in all the mass food industries such as in production of pesticides and fertilizers who are required to keep high yield. This policy will force industries to adapt their greenhouse emission effectively in order to keep making money as they meant to do, but with a better respect for our planet.

Until now politics are protecting industrials processed food because it brings a low food price to the population (U.S spend under 10% of their income on food). Therefore, industries in generals have very few regulations to leave the room for them to produce mass cheap food such as the industries who are not constrained, therefore polluting the environment further. Indeed, if a majority of us are showing support and interest to new type of regulation such as the Energy and Innovation act, we will force industrial companies to adapt their mode of production. Let’s not be naïve and wait for industrial companies to deliver us real food and be sustainable!

https://citizensclimatelobby.org/energy-innovation-and-carbon-dividend-act/

https://beef2live.com/story-americans-spend-under-10-income-food-0-124534

Picture 1: https://www.carbonpricingleadership.org/blogs/2019/2/3/bipartisan-carbon-fee-and-dividend-bill-now-before-us-congress

Picture 2: http://www.ecobase21.net/Lesmotsduclimatsmartphone/Companies.html

Connections with the World System and Ourselves

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Response to Sarah  Champ’s “A refocusing Around Connection”

Feel Connected

This reflection on the Contemplative Practices ties in the very present issue of COVID-19 and the stresses it is bringing to daily lives, and the stresses it puts on the world system. I personally have never felt more transient, with my family’s summer move plans no longer set in stone, all future plans cancelled, and the uncertainty of even returning to school in the fall taking its toll on my ability to feel connected to the life I left (as I am out of state) and even the sense of self I have built over the last year. Sarah feels the same way, as there is both an internal sense of pressure to feel tied down to something, and an external through responsibilities such as coursework and household duties, but an inability to feel a connection to either. People are interconnected, and this sense of connection being disrupted has led to a more systemic approach of every individual and entire countries evaluating their connection to each other.

The greatest impact of this can be seen on the fossil fuel industry. COVID-19 has decimated oil prices as production continues but no consumers are using it, as car use and industrial production are halted due to economic shutdowns worldwide. Divestment in Fossil Fuels: A Preventive Public Health Strategy ...According to Forbes, renewable energy has become more appealing in fossil fuel’s place as they are not nearly as volatile economically, and increase energy sovereignty as constant imports of scarce fossil fuels are cut. Economic bailouts are being drafted for relief, and lawmakers are being given an opportunity to focus relief on more economically viable and environmentally safe instead of continuing to fund the dying fossil fuel industry. Peak Oil and Coal were reached decades ago, and the supply is only fading more and more.

The connection between individuals, the pandemic, and the fossil fuel industry’s future is clear, and it is paramount to make sure that change is enacted for the better.

The Future with Urban Farming!

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This post is a response to the article: “Urban Farms’ Rapid Response to COVID-19”

This blog post talks about the benefits of urban farming and how local farms play a critical role in bringing food onto people’s tables, especially during a time like the global pandemic we are in today. The post does a great job of bringing up the point that urban farms are very effective, but there are many more benefits that come with Urban Farms, and hopefully, this post can build on that!

Photo of an Urban Farm on a city rooftop

Urban farms are a great way to shorten the whole process of farm to table and often would cut out the huge delivery process needed of getting produce from an industrial farm to a grocery store close to you. This makes urban farms much more beneficial to the environment, as this would cut down fossil fuel consumption during the transporting of food. Urban farms could also assist with sequestering carbon into these plants and the soil, absorbing some of the carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.

But most importantly, urban farms are a place that brings the community together. I personally have taken part in volunteering at an urban farm and was able to see this in action. Urban farms provide a place that many people in the community care about, and they all work together to create a space they are happy with. This creates many interactions between members in a community and provides an opportunity for people to create connections through these interactions. People could be more educated about the food they are eating, all while creating a green space that they are proud of.

There are many more benefits to urban farming, like combatting food security. Urban Farming is a sustainable method of producing food and something more communities should take on!

 

Globalization to Sustainable Development

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When I read EO’s post about Chocolate, I started to think about the many exotic foods I eat on a daily basis. In America, it has become so normalized to see foods that are grown around the world in all different seasons at the grocery store every day. Some of my favorite foods: mangoes, coffee, avocados, and chocolate are things that only a few centuries ago, people living in the Pacific Northwest wouldn’t have even known to exist.

While preparing for the contemplative practice on chocolate, I was amazed that the cacao farmers in the video had never tasted chocolate and didn’t even know what their crop was being used to make.

Once, when I was in Mexico, I visited an avocado farm where they were being grown to export to the United States. Earlier in the day, I had been to a market where they were selling apples from Washington. Then, I went to a coffee shop where the beans had been grown in Guatemala. It amazes me how globalized the food system is and how normal it seems to most people.

A farmer in Mexico holds up his avocados to the viewer.

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/avocado-growers-in-michoacan-take-up-arms-to-fight-for-their-crops/

Many experts are calling for a switch to a localized agricultural system. Whenever possible, I try to shop at my local farmer’s market and support small organic farms, but I wonder what would happen to the many farmers in the developing world that have adopted cash crops to export to industrialized countries.

Farmers in Central America are already facing challenges due to climate change, and I fear that a reduction in demand for exotic foods would exacerbate their problems.

Certainly, localized agriculture would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, food miles, and water grabs, but I think that sustainable development and eradicating poverty will do more for climate change than anything.

Sustainable Development Goals: End poverty, end hunger, Healthy lives and wellbeing for all, sustainable use of water, education, gender equality, work for all, sustainable and modern energy, reliable infrastructure, reduce inequality, sustainable production and consumption, safe and inclusive cities, conserve oceans, protect ecosystems, halt biodiversity loss, and combat climate change.

Rescue Global: https://www.rescueglobal.org/

Rescue Global: https://www.rescueglobal.org/